Verizon Taps Alcatel-Lucent to Upgrade FiOS

Verizon said Tuesday that it plans to deploy technology developed by Alcatel-Lucent across its FiOS service area that could increase speeds by four to eight times.

Customers in Lewisville, Texas and Kirklyn, Pennsylvania would be the first to receive the upgrade, called a gigabit passive optical network (G-PON). Verizon would be the first to deploy the new technology within the United States.

Download speeds would increase fourfold, while upstream rates would increase eight times. Verizon says the technology is essential to future planned upgrades for both its television and Internet services.

Lewisville residents would benefit from the new upgrades early in the second quarter. Kirklyn residents would follow during the summer, and pending the success of the tests, future rollouts would be announced.

In the meantime, Verizon would continue to rollout an earlier version of the technology, called broadband passive optical network (B-PON), to additional areas. The company currently has about 6 million connected to the network across 16 states, it says.

Verizon hopes to add another 3 million homes annually, reaching about 18 million by the beginning of the next decade.

"Simply by deploying G-PON optics and associated electronics, we get a significant boost in bandwidth," Verizon senior vice president and chief technology officer Mark Wegleitner said. "This will allow us to continue offering our customers the best broadband, video and voice services available today and tomorrow."

Alcatel-Lucent earlier this week signed another agreement with Verizon to help upgrade and expand its wireless network.